Sword Art Online: Parallels
by Alec Cross
Summary: The SAO Incident as experienced by a different group of players, this is the story of how they coped, fought, and lived while trapped in the death game that is Sword Art Online. This story contains characters of my creation, and will adhere to canon. Please R&R.
1. Intro & Disclaimer

**A few notes:**

I don't plan on featuring the main characters of SAO much in this fanfic. I plan on writing about separate characters trapped during the SAO Incident. The main characters may be mentioned or encountered, but I don't plan on writing from their points of view.

Many of the character names I'm planning on using were usernames used by myself or my friends in the past. I'm simply using the usernames, not trying to place them in this story. The characters I'll be using are all fictional. (So if you happen to see your username used in this story, chill out and take it as a compliment.)

Also, I wrote out Kayaba's speech for the "Tutorial" from the anime, not the books, just in case anyone is a stickler for these things. :p

Lastly, all my characters will be written in the third person. Reki Kawahara only writes Kirito in the first person, and since I won't be writing Kirito's POV, I figured I'd keep with his style in that regard.

 **Disclaimer:**

And, of course, the disclaimer! I don't own SAO or any of the characters created by Reki Kawahara. Don't sue me.

 **Also:**

I haven't written fanfiction in years (as in many years), so please be nice with any feedback!

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy!


	2. Chapter 1

Fife smiled as the Frenzy Boar seemed to freeze in place and burst into a small could of coloured polygons, then vanished entirely. Fife lowered his sword and turned to his friend.

"The polygon death graphic is a little weird, but overall this is awesome!"

"Right?" Agreed Staan, slipping his sword back into its scabbard, "This is amazing! The in-game rendering is fantastic, and the full immersion with the NerveGear is friggin' sweet!"

"So why did you decide to make your avatar a girl?" asked Fife.

"I just like to switch up the characters I play. Keep things interesting. You know?"

"You sure you don't just like to dress up in girls' clothes?"

"Shut up!" Countered Staan, flipping Fife off with a smile. "Hey, there's more boars over there. Let's go take them out, then head back to the Town of Beginnings."

"Sounds good!" Fife agreed.

The two friends approached the pair of Frenzy Boars and readied their blades. Fife moved towards the boar on the left, and sprang forward, activating the Slant sword skill as he moved alongside the boar's head. Fife's sword started to glow a light blue colour, and he allowed the system to take over, and his sword completed the diagonal slash onto the back of the boar's head. The boar dropped, and the familiar polygon poof appeared and faded. Fife closed the "Congratulations" window informing him of his victory over the boar, and noticed that Staan's health bar in the top left of his HUD had dropped a little.  
Fife turned to his right in time to see the polygon poof that had been Staan's boar, and Staan shrug at him.

"I didn't make the gesture to activate Linear right. Missed my first attack chance, and it got a hit in before I managed to activate Linear properly."

"Yeah, the sword skill activation is going to take some getting used to. But on the plus side, we've each made 720 Exp and 900 Col off this little outing. How are you liking the rapier?"

"It's not bad. I want to base my play-style on speed, so I thought it would be a good fit. How's the Small Sword?"

"Not bad. I'm probably going to tank my character, so I figured using a one-handed weapon with a shield would be the way to go."

"Of course are. You always tank your characters!"

"And you always go for speed, so our play styles compliment each other."

"Truth!"

"Lets head back to town and see what we can afford."

Fife and Staan sheathed their weapons and made their way back to the Town of Beginnings. The two had been friends for years, and were avid gamers. They had both been disappointed at missing out on being Beta Testers for SAO, but had made sure they both got copies on the first day of release. Once they had camped on the sidewalk and waited in line for what seemed like a lifetime, they had rushed home and waited for the 1:00PM launch of the SAO servers, and had logged in and started creating their characters. They had been waiting for SAO since the moment it was announced, and so far it had lived up to their expectations.

As the two walked towards the Town of Beginnings to the East, they discussed possible character traits, the games graphics, and Staan's latest psycho girlfriend. They reached the entrance gate of the town just as another familiar player was leaving town. His in-game name was Freeman, which both Fife and Staan agreed was ironic, since in the real world he had the most controlling girlfriend either of them could imagine. Fife was almost surprised that she wasn't in SAO as well, if only so she could yell at him and boss him around in the virtual world as well as the real one.

"Hey freeman!" Called Staan, "How's it going?"

"Not bad!" Called back Freeman, "just heading out to do a bit of hunting. How is it out there?"

"Pretty good!" Said Fife, "The Frenzy boars make for easy XP and Col. We were just out for a bit to get some cash. Going to go check out the shops in town now."

"Right on, I'll catch up with you guys later, ok?"

"Sounds good man, Fife and I may catch up with you out there in a bit. Happy hunting!"

With that the friends parted ways, with Staan and Fife making their way into the town of beginnings. They'd been out in the western fields for 2 hours wandering around, getting used to the sword skills, and had each killed about 30 Frenzy Boars. Fife opened his touch menu and looked at the clock.

"Not bad man! It's 3:30. SAO has been live for 2 and a half hours, and we've made some cash and are about to level up!"

"Yeah, not bad at all! Let's just hit the shops for a minute, then go catch up with Freeman. We can get him to join our party and check out some other areas." Suggested Staan.

The two friends made their way to the shops, and each bought a panini to eat, and each bought 5 of the cheapest black bread loaves from the NPC bakery in the Town of Beginnings. They browsed some other wares, but didn't bother to buy anything yet. They were close enough to leveling up that there was no point in spending any of their Col on gear yet, so they spent the 17 Col on their food, ate their paninis while sitting on a bench on the sidewalk of one of the large, paved roads of the Town of Beginnings, then headed back out the West Gate to go look for Freeman and grind monsters for experience.

***

Suki sighed as Mila finally walked into view and waved. Suki had been waiting for Mila to finish her character creation and show up to the meeting place they had agreed upon.

Suki had been waiting.

And waiting.

For two hours.

"Finally!" Exclaimed Suki, her tone impatient and her teeth gritted, "How can it take so long for you to get through the character creation!?"

"The character creation was SO cool! I wanted to take my time and enjoy it! You've seen me play console RPGs. You should have known I'd be a little while. Besides, it's not like I can just log in and play with one of the default skins! Where's the fun in that?"

"A little while? Mila, I've been standing here for two hours!" growled Suki through clenched teeth, "Can we go explore now?"

"Yeah, of course!" Smiled Mila, "I'm looking forward to seeing what the graphics are like outside! The Town of Beginnings is awesome so far!"

The two girls moved off, heading towards the western gate. Suki slowly began relaxing as they walked. She should have known Mila would take forever to create a character. They were roommates, and Suki had watched Mila spend many hours, on many different games, just playing with the character creation. On top of which, Suki had to admit that Mila had done a pretty cool job with her character. The likeness of Mila's character's face was very close to Mila's actual face, and her height and body shape were pretty much dead-on. Her hair colour was different, with the character's hair being a light orange colour, but as Mila's roommate Suki would be the only one to know that.  
Suki herself had taken the lazy route with her character creation. She hadn't used the default skin settings, mostly because Mila would have never shut up about it, but she had only made a handful of changes to make the character her own. In Suki's opinion, in a game with a first person view, it didn't matter to her what she looked like. She couldn't really see her charater anyway. And Suki wasn't one to care about what other people thought of her in the real world, let alone in the fake world of a computer game.

"I'm really excited to get leveling and get some armour and cool weapons!" Exclaimed Mila.

"As long as this isn't one of those games where guys' armour is big and bulky but women's armour is basically a metal bikini!" Grumbled Suki.

"What's wrong with a little bit of boobs every now and then?" Mila grinned.

"You can't tell me the armour in those sort of games would actually provide any protection!" exclaimed Suki "it's just a bunch of horny nerd game developers with dirty minds and a sad case of wishful thinking! No woman would actually wear armour like that!"

Suki glanced over at Mila and grinned sarcastically "Except maybe you, since you can;' seem to get the hang of wearing a shirt around our apartment either."

"What?" Complained Mila "I just forget to do laundry! You can't expect me to walk around in a grungy shirt! And If I do you just tell me to do laundry! I can't do laundry AND wear my clothes at the same time! Pick one!"

Suki growled under her breath, then sighed. Mila was hopeless. Suki and Mila had been friends for a long time, and had been roommates for a few years now. Mila was just kind of lazy and absentminded when it came to anything except the gym and video games. Suki was pretty sure that if Mila didn't work at a gym as a trainer, she would be a very out of shape gamer girl. As it was she was a very in shape, healthy eating gamer girl. Just one who forgot to do her laundry.

Suki was the yin to Mila's yang. Suki was predictable in her routines for everything, including laundry and cleaning. Suki had never even held a video game controller before she met Mila. Even now she only played every now and then, mostly to stop Mila from nagging her to play video games with her. And, she had to admit, she did enjoy them every now and then.

When she wasn't standing around waiting for Mila to create her character.

"Let's go kill some creatures!" Said Mila as they walked through the west gate of the Town of Beginnings and out into the outside wilds of the 1st floor, "I want to try out these sword skills! It's supposed to be really cool!"

And with that, Mila took off running down the road, with Suki sighing and scrambling to keep up with her.

***

Freeman turned away from the polygon burst that had been a boar and smiled at Staan and Fife. "This is awesome!"

"You getting the hang of initiating the sword skills?" Asked Fife.

"Yeah! It took a few tries, but I'm getting the hang of it now!"

"I can't believe how cool this is!" Staan laughed, "I mean, I've always loved video games, but the NerveGear is awesome! Experiencing the game in full dive VR is so cool!"

Fife grinned at his friend, "Definitely beats the hell out of a console and a controller!"

"Well, if you guys are level 2 already, I'm going to have to grind more to catch up! I don't want to be left behind while you guys run off and get all the cool items!" Said Freeman, "Lets grind a little more, then we can try..."

Freeman's words were cut short by the sudden tolling of a bell. It sounded like it was coming from the town of beginnings. The three friends stopped and turned towards the noise.

"What do you think it is?" Asked Freeman

"Dunno, man," replied Fife.

"Maybe we should head back and check,,,"  
For the second time, Freeman's words were cut short, this time when the three players were enveloped in bright blue light, then disappeared.

***

The three figures rematerialized in the centre of the town of beginnings.

"What was that?" asked Staan

"Hell if I know." Muttered Fife, looking around and seeing other players appearing all around them, until the town square appeared to be filled with every player in SAO.

Suddenly the tolling of the bell fell silent.

"Guys, look!" Exclaimed Freeman, pointing at the sky above the town, where a red polygon was flashing the word "Warning"

Suddenly, the sky above the town of beginnings was filling with red alert blocks with server messages stating "Warning" and "System announcement", expanding until it created a massive red dome over the whole town. A strange shape seemed to bleed out of the dome, and then from that hanging glob formed into a tall figure in a red cloak. The cloaked figure spread it's arms, and it's voice boomed over the square.

"Attention players, I welcome you, to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayoba, and as of this moment, I am in control of this world."

"What the hell?" Muttered Fife

"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus. The Log Out button. Let me assure you this is not a defect in the game.  
I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

"What the hell is he talking about?" exclaimed Staan, balling his fists.

"You cannot log out of this game, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the NerveGear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

"Is he serious?" Asked Freeman.

"I think it would be safe to assume he is." Staan replied, gritting his teeth.

""This guy is nuts!" Freeman whimpered.

"Yeah, kinda getting that vibe too." agreed Fife.

The hooded figure of Kayaba continued.

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear. An unfortunate decision to say the least. As a result, the game now has 213 less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."

"Oh shit..." Gasped Fife.

"As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It's important you remember the following. There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system forever, and the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain."

Fife and Staan looked at each other in silence, grim expressions marking their faces.

"There's only one way for a player to escape now...  
You must clear the game.  
Right now you are gather on Floor 1, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."

"Guys, I'm so screwed..." Cried Freeman, "My girlfriend gets off work at 6! She said I'd better not be gaming when she got home, or she'd rip the NerveGear right off my head! If she hasn't heard about this..."

"Oh shit..." Hissed Staan.

"Fucking hell..." Breathed Fife, staring at his friend wide-eyed. They both knew Freeman's girlfriend was crazy. They also knew she wasn't the most intelligent person in world, and wasn't likely to watch the news, even by accident.

"Last but not least," Kayaba continued, "I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please, have a look."

All around the plaza, players opened their menus and looked in their item storage. The three friends followed suit, find an item labeled "Hand Mirror" in their item lists. They each tapped the item, and a small handheld mirror appeared before them. Suddenly, all over the plaza, people were surrounded by a blue glow, and startled cries filled the air as players were consumed by the blinding glow. After it had subsided, Fife and Staan stared at each other, shocked.

"Your avatar is gone!" Gasped Staan, staring at Fife and seeing him as he appeared in the real world, though still wearing the clothes he had been when they started out in SAO.

"You too!" Said Fife, who then burst out laughing, "And you're still wearing the girls clothes from your avatar!"

"Shut up!"

"I'm sorry, it's not funny." Said Fife, trying to keep a strait face. Which lasted only about 2 seconds. "But I've gotta say," Fife continued between laughs, "It's a good look for you!"

"Screw you man!"

"With that pretty dress on, you might have a chance!"

"Shut up, or I'll..."

He was cut off as Kayaba once again resumes his grim speech.

"Right now, you're probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of the world of my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial, and the official launch of sword art online.  
Players, I wish you the best of luck."

With that, the robed figure disappeared, along with the red dome over the Town of Beginnings.

The occupants of the plaza all stood in quiet shock for a moment, then a shrill cry that sounded like that of a small girl rose from somewhere off to their left, and soon the panic had spread.  
All over the plaza, voices raised in alarm and panic. The crowd erupted in confusion. Staan saw a young man with short black hair dart into an alley with a taller player in tow. He continued to look around at the crowd until his daze was broken by a hand gripping his left arm. He turned his head and saw Fife looking at him.

"We've gotta go," Fife growled, "This panic could turn ugly, and if we really will die in real life if we die in the game, I want to put some distance between us and panicked mobs."

Fife's words snapped Staan out of his shock. He nodded, tapped Freeman on the shoulder, and the three started making their way through the crowd towards the west gate.

***

"Who cares about your stupid avatar!" growled Suki, dragging Mila by the arm through the crowd as the sounds of alarm and confusion grew all around them, "We should get somewhere away from all there people!"

"But it took me so long to make! It was so cool!" Mila whined.

"I know how long it took you to make! I was standing around here waiting for you the whole damn time! Now come on!" Shouted Suki, inches from Mila's face.

Suki had heard some players near them talking, and the three guys seemed to have a point. Large crowds plus panic usually spelled trouble. And as the guy had said, if death in Sword Art Online really did mean death in real life, Suki didn't want to be anywhere near large desperate gatherings of people. She continued to drag the whining Mila through the crowd, in the direction that the three men had traveled, which seemed to be towards the west gate.

"Where are we going?" Asked Mila, "Why are we heading towards the west gate?"

"I saw some guys head this way. I heard them mention back in the plaza that panicked crowds can spell trouble. It was a good point."

"So now we're stalking them?" Asked Mila, "I'm sure that'll go over well."

"We're not stalking them!" Snapped Suki, "We're just moving in the same direction they are. Away from the crowd. Then we can figure out what to do from there."

"What should we do?" Asked Mila.

"What do you mean what should we do?" Snapped Suki, "The only reason I bought this game was because you wouldn't stop pestering me about it! You're the gamer girl here! So YOU tell ME!"

Suki's tirade seemed to snap Mila out of her sulk.

"Right. Ok." Said Mila, a new look of grim determination on her face. "It's still an RPG, if suddenly a much scarier one. So we need to treat it like any other RPG."

"Meaning..." Prompted Suki.

"Meaning we need to work to level up and get better equipment. Especially with the new risk in the game. The better weapons and armour we get, the better our chance of survival."

"So you want us to go out there and fight monsters, even though they can kill us. Like, actually kill us."

"Yeah."

"Ok. But let's be careful. You're the RPG addict, so I'll follow your lead."

"Right!" Said Mila, looking at her friend with a new look of determination. "Lets go."

With that, the two friends turned and continued heading for the west gate.

***

Fife, Staan and Freeman stopped just outside the west gate. Not much time had passed, but they seemed to have a bit of distance between them and the mob.

"Ok, hold up." Said Fife, "we need to figure out what we're going to do. This situation got fucked up really fast back there."

"What time is it?" Asked Freeman, seeming frantic.

Staan opened his menu and checked the time.

"6:20."

"Shit!" Exclaimed Freeman, "my girlfriend gets home around 6:30!"

"Maybe she saw the news. Or heard about this bullshit." Said Staan.

"God, I hope so!" Moaned Freeman, burying his face in his hands.

"She wouldn't really rip the NerveGear off your head, would she?"

"Probably. She's slapped controllers out of my hands before, and she trashed my console once. I had to go buy a new one."

"Man..." Hissed Staan.

They were distracted from the discussion when two players came jogging out of the gate, stopping just a few meters short of them. Fife and Staan turned to the new arrivals, while Freeman continued to moan, his face still buried in his hands.

The players were two girls who looked to be in their early twenties. One had long dark reddish hair that fell midway down her back, and the other's hair was sandy brown and hung just past her shoulders, with part of it tied up in the back with a blue ribbon. The brunette looked to be just over 5 and a half feet tall, and the redhead was an inch or so taller. Both were wearing basic clothing options that players start out with. The redhead was wearing a white tunic and beige pants with brown calf-high boots. The brunette was wearing a tight-fitting black shirt with short sleeves, with a bright blue skirt and black knee-length boots. Both had small pieces or armour visible strapped on over their clothes. The brunette carried small sword, the basic beginner sword, while the redhead carried an axe.

The two new-arrivals stopped and stared at the three friends.

"Hey." The brunette said, "Where are you guys headed?"

"Uh, and why are you wearing that?" Asked the redhead, looking at Staan.

They had stumbled upon the group of guys Suki had seen earlier just outside the West gate. The three of them had apparently stopped just outside the gate, and two of the three turned to face Suki and Mila and they drew up just a few meters away. Suki hadn't gotten a good look at the three players before, and not studied them for a moment. One she couldn't really make out, as his head was buried in his hands, and he was hunched over. The other two were tall, one just under 6 feet tall and the other about an inch over 6 feet. The shorter of the two appeared to be around Suki and Mila's age, and was lean, almost skinny, with blonde hair that was shaved on the sides and long on top, with a clean shaven face. The taller player looked to be a few years older and was large in build, with a shaved head and a brown beard. He wore a navy blue shirt with short sleeves, with black trousers and black boots, with pieces of armour overtop. The blonde player was wearing...a dress?

"Hey." Mila said, "Where are you guys headed?"

"Uh, and why are you wearing that?"asked Suki.

The taller of the male players turned to look at his friend, and burst out laughing.

"Shut up, Fife!" snapped the blonde player.

"I'm sorry man, I can't help it! It's goddamn hilarious!"

"You should watch your language," Suki remonstrated, "there's kids who play this game."

"Considering we're now trapped in this game and there's a very real risk of dying, I think them hearing me use foul language is the least of our worries." Fife countered.

"Plus, asking Fife not to swear is like asking a priest not to pray. Just won't happen." Added the blonde player.

"Is he ok?" Asked Mila, pointing to the third player, who wasn't paying any attention to the exchange and was still holding his head in his hands.

"Not really..." Started Fife.

"Freeman's worried that his NerveGear is going to be disconnected." Staan explained.

"She'll be home any minute!" The player they called Freeman whimpered.

Suki and Mila watched as the obviously panicked player paced back and forth muttering to himself, alternating between burying his face in his hands and wringing his hands while squeezing his eyes shut.

"Who will be home?" Mila asked, turning to the large goateed player.

"His girlfriend. She hates it when he games, and he thinks she's going to rip off the NerveGear." Staan explained.

"Which she probably will." Fife added with a grim glance at their friend.

"She wouldn't really…" started Suki, but that was as far as she got before she was cut off by an odd grunting noice.

It was coming from Freeman.

They all turned towards the noise, seeing that Freeman had stopped his pacing and no longer had his face buried in his hands. Instead, he was doubled over, grasping the sides of his head tightly. After a moment, he looked up, still clutching the sides of his head. His expression showed pain and horror.

"Freeman?" began Staan, stepping towards his friend.

Freeman held his friend's gaze a moment more, the look of horror frozen on his face. Then his avatar seemed to flicker, as though some disruption to the signal was causing static.

Then he disappeared.


End file.
